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The CDC is working with the American College of Surgeons on a three-year initiative to use standardized quality measures and health IT to monitor and prevent surgical-site infections and complications. The project will integrate the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network, a Web-based infection-surveillance system, with the ACS's National Surgical Quality Improvement Program.

Related Summaries

U.S. hospitals have made progress in reducing certain types of hospital-acquired infections, but more work is needed to protect patients, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Central line-associated bloodstream infections fell 46% between 2008 and 2013, and surgical-site infections were down 19% in the same period. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections fell 8% between 2011 and 2013, and Clostridium difficile infections fell 10% during that time.

Hospitalized men were 30% more likely than women to develop community-associated bloodstream infections and 60% more likely to have health care-related bloodstream and surgical-site infections, according to a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The link was less pronounced before age 12 and after age 70.

Patients with surgical-site infections after colon and rectal procedures had a four times greater risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism than patients who did not develop infections, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Ninety-two percent of those who developed clots had been given preventive anticoagulants. More screening for clots may be needed in these patients with surgical-site infections, a researcher said.

Obese patients undergoing colectomies were 60% more likely to develop surgical-site infections than their nonobese counterparts, according to a report in the Archives of Surgery. The study found that 14.5% of obese patients suffered infections compared with 9.5% of nonobese patients.

The CMS proposed a rule that would mandate a nonpayment policy for health care-associated conditions in the Medicare list, such as deep vein thrombosis and surgical-site infections, as well as allow states to add preventable conditions that are not yet in the list. The proposed rule, which would take effect July 1, "would provide some consistency across health care payers," the CMS said.